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Review: Hairspray

Go see it. It's faaah-bulous. - By Morgan, Jul 09, 08

Coming off the mewling "Mama Mia!" last year -- the last big deal musical in town -- "Hairspray" blasts onto the stage with an unexpected edge, coming across as downright "transgressive," if such a thing is even possible for musical theatre.

True to the original staging of the musical, this Shanghai production doesn't dull the "edge" of the original -- or at least it dulls very little -- and although it's a slick, splashy, and bombastic Broadway musical comedy in the best way, it also dishes up double and triple doses of that fine and fast bitchy wit that originated with John Waters, but was streamlined in the original book by Thomas Meehan and Mark O'Donnel.

Here are some standout zingers:

"Tracy is retard and a tramp. She's slow and fast at the same time!"

"You want to be famous? Learn how to get blood out of car upholstery. That's a growth industry."

"OH my God! Colored people in the house. I'll never sell it now!"

"The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste."

Although its still John Waters' "safest" work (one critic called it his "most hygienic"), Hairspray's risky PG-13ness is something of a novelty in China English-language theatre, and watching the production one can't help but think that some censor somewhere was asleep at the switch -- or at least they had some inner fat girl that could not be silenced. There is a race riot in it after all. And the police show up to quell it by force. It is a Broadway-esque race riot (about as perilous as a Jets-Sharks gang war), but hey, it's still in there. Exhilarating.

But to focus on the racy (for China) bits -- surging relentlessly as they do from just about every actor on stage -- would be an inaccurate representation of what is truly a glowing, endearing, and heart-warming Broadway musical comedy.

Set in a wonderfully cartooney Baltimore in 1962, Hairspray follows Tracy Turnblad, an overweight teenager and aspiring star of the Corny Collins Show, a '60s dance cabaret featuring teen dancers. After a star on the show leaves (due to pregnancy no less), Corny Collins holds auditions to find a replacement. With the help of her "negro" friend Seaweed, teaching her new moves in detention ("ain't no black and white in detention, it's a rainbow experience!"), Tracy makes it on the show, despite the machinations of the evil star dancer Amber Von Tussle and her mother/producer of the show, the bigoted Velma von Tussel.

Velma von Tussel, a sort of campy, stock '50s Cruella Deville character, harbors a venomous prejudice against both blacks and fatties, and focuses her rage on Tracey as her popularity rises and Amber's wanes. Tracy then realizes that it's not fair that the black kids can only dance on the Corny Collins Show once a month, and with the help of Seaweed and his mother Motormouth Maybelle, she fights to integrate the Corny Collins show. And much epic singing and dancing ensues.

At her side all throughout is Tracey's gargantuan mother Edna Turnblat, originally played by uber dag-queen Devine in the John Waters original, and John Travolta in the 2007 movie remake. Edna is the quintessential John Waters character, being paradoxically the campiest character in the cast, but also the most honest, endearing, and sympathetic one as well.

A glorification of the true heart at the centre of American trash, Hairspray is uplifting as it is entertaining, glossy without being self-important. Although the messages of acceptance and tolerance are straightforward, they nonetheless ring out earnestly all the same when delivered at full volume by 20+ people in unison, and the Shanghai stop of Hairspray is a truly enjoyable experience.

In short, go see it. It's really good.

I also hope the popularity of this musical will bring about the mass flooding of our sacred black market DVD stalls with copies of that other John Waters epic, the decidedly unhygienic Pink Flamingos.

For show times and ticket info click here.

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